Welcome to the Top

The "Interview"

Only an hour until showtime and soundcheck was going horribly.

"Okay, let's try this one more time. Danny, go," I try to say nicely. I love that boy to death but he kept screwing up, whether it be the tempo of the song or the beat in general.

"1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4!"

We started up again, playing Girls Don't Like Boys by Good Charlotte. The chorus came around and I finally got a chance to sing with the rest of the band.

Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money.
Boys will laugh at girls when they're not funny.
And these girls like these boys
Like these boys like these girls
The girls with their bodies
Like boys with Fararees
Girls don't like boys, girls like cars and money.

I told the guys that I wasn't feeling up to singing right now so I let Aaron finish out the lyrics while I took his guitar solo, staring at the floor the whole time. We've practiced so much in the past week that I can hardly sing on key today.

"Good job, guys. Let's call it quits and just hang out before the show. No singing and not too much talking. I'm going to walk around a bit to clear my head, alright? Stay rad," I winked before walking off in the opposite direction.

I headed to the dressing room to get some cough drops and the tea that I made before soundcheck. This should hopefully cure anything wrong with my voice before the show. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head, this is possibly the most important gig we will ever have and I have a sore throat and rehearsals were awful.
"Great, just great," I said to myself.

Half an hour until we start, plenty of time for some pre-show tunes. I cranked up the stereo and played Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana just to get in a rock mood. I felt fine after I downed the tea and had a few cough drops, but the mirror told another story. I re-straightened my hair and cleaned off my make up. I know, I know, why would I take off my make up before going out in front of over 100 people? One, I don't really care what strangers think of me. And two, I get all sweaty so it smudges off anyways.

By the time the guys got back to the dressing room I was blaring Kansas and had reluctantly changed out of my sweats and into a pair of shredded black tights, my 'Too Cool For School' shirt, with a red flannel shirt tied around my waist, black vans, and a gray beanie.

"Who's stoked for tonight? I am," I flicked my hair back dramatically.

"Well, someone's in a better mood," Aaron said, hugging me from behind.

I quickly untangled myself from his grasp and pushed him towards his corner of the room, "That I am, hurry up and get ready. We have to get out of here."

Jason and Danny looked at me quizzically before turning around to get changed. I don't know what's going on with me but I've just been sick of Aaron. I don't want him out of the band I just don't think that I want us to be together anymore.

I shook the thought out of my head as Photograph by Nickleback came on and I turned it up all the way.

~~~

"Alright everyone, this will be our last song of the night -" I started to tell the crowd but Aaron interrupted me.

"And in honor of our special guests, we decided to play American Idiot in the style of 5sos!"

I covered the microphone, "Hey guys, let me take the lead on this one, I'm feeling it."

"2, 3, 4!"

Jazz did his little scream thing and sang the first verse with me.

Don't wanna be American idiot
Don't wanna nation under the new mania
And can you hear the sound of hysteria
The subliminal mind fuck America.

I went solo on the chorus.

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow
We're not the ones you're meant to follow
For her that's enough to argue.

Jazz joined in again for the second verse.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America
I'm not a part of the redneck agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda
And sing along to the age of paranoia

Aaron sang back up this time.

Welcome to a new kind of tension
All across the alien nation
Where everything isn't meant to be okay
Television dreams of tomorrow
We're not the ones you're meant to follow
For her that's enough to argue.

Jazz had a little guitar riff right before Danny's drum solo, all leading up to my pretty legit -- if I do say so myself -- solo. I was on fire tonight, we a were. This is the best we've played in months.

We finished the song and thanked the crowd before heading back to our tiny dressing room. I jumped on Danny's back as he ran down the hall. The other boys were trying to do cartwheels and film each other at the same time.

Danny was spinning around in circles but stopped suddenly when we heard a loud thump and a few "Oofs!"

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry man!" Jazzy apologized to the four guys he cartwheeled into and knocked over.

"It's cool dude, don't worry about it," said the one, the only Calum Hood.

When I saw the rest of the guys lying in a heap on the floor, a part of me wanted to curl up in a ball and die, but but a larger part of my wanted to laugh at my idols. The larger part of me won out.

Danny must have had a similar reaction to mine since he started laughing so hard he dropped me from is back, which made him laugh even more. I then kicked the back of his knee and his legs fell out from under him making me laugh uncontrollably.

"Leann! Danny! Get off the ground we have our entire future to discuss!" Jazz whisper shouted at us.

I wiped my face clean of all the stage sweat and laugh tears before standing up and smiling up at the four Australian boys.

"Sorry about that," I said trying to regain my composure.

"Having a good time with your band is never anything to be sorry about. I'm Ashton, that's Calum, Michael, and Luke," he pointed to each of the boys.

"Um, I'm obviously Leann, that's Daniel but he goes by Danny, that's Jason but we call him Jazz, and that's Aaron."

Hands were being shaken and numbers were being exchanged, I took this time to check out the guys in person. I've been a huge fan for a few years now and I could feel my heart beating out of my chest. Yep, they were just as tall and gorgeous as their pictures portray.

"So you said that we needed to talk about, uh, band stuff?" I try to move things along.

"Actually, I'm pretty sure that we've seen enough of you just now to come to a final decision, right boys?" Ash said.

I looked around at my friends and I could tell that we were all thinking the same thing. We just made a huge fool of ourselves and now we were never going to get to go on tour with 5 Seconds of Summer.

"Stop torturing them, Ashton! You guys are in!" Michael exclaimed.

We all jump up, yell excitedly, and hug before quickly acting cool in a very awkward fashion.

"So, we're in. What's next?" Aaron asks.

"I say we go celebrate!" Michael cheered.

"Pizza and ice cream?" I suggest to the group.

"Is that really even a question," they all give me a little shove.

"Well, what are you waiting for? The door is that way," I gesture to my left and walk out leaving the boys behind cracking up.

•••

There's Chapter 2 for you! I'm not really sure how to pace this story yet so it's kind of all over the place. Anyways, I hope you like it so far!
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